AB-22 Bill: Giving back democracy and human rights for the American communists

01/06/2017

Finally, California’s administration has ended
a decades-old ban on members of the Communist Party working in its government,
after the state Assembly approved a bill, Assembly Bill 22 (AB-22), that would
delete references to the party from its employment requirements.

Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, the
bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, called the legislation a
"cleanup bill that removes archaic and outdated references to the
Communist Party in our state laws, specifically those stating that a public
employee may be dismissed from employment if he or she advocates or is
knowingly a member of the Communist Party."

The previous law went on to say that being a
member of the Communist Party is clear reason to terminate a government
employee. The new bill would keep the key provisions of the law, but eliminate
specific references to the political party from state government hiring
criteria. It would still keep the regulation that employees can be terminated
for being part of any organization that they know advocates the overthrow of
the government by violence or force.

Of course, some are not in agreement with the
law, particularly those representing high immigrant communities, where many
residents have come to actively flee from
communist states. Several Republicans, including Assemblymembers Randy Vopel (R-Santee) and Travis Allen (R-Huntington
Beach) spoke out against the bill. State Sen. Janet Nguyen, a Republican
representing Garden Grove, has vowed to vote no on the bill if it comes to the
Senate floor. She has started a petition opposing it. According to them, the
bill is an incredible insult to Californians who have escaped communism.

Here comes the most ironic rhetoric of
American society in general and anti-Vietnam elements among overseas Vietnamese
in particular. They are calling and requiring for human rights and democracy
over the world, but they do not let a man to have jobs because of his/her
political view. They are asking for recognition of their political parties, but
they boycott and call for unfair treatments towards communist members in the
U.S. This existing law proves hypocrite of America and those anti-Vietnam
elements who have always criticized Vietnam’s government for violating human
rights and democracy.

Part of having a functioning democracy and a
fair and equitable society is to make sure you’re actually basing your
decisions to take someone’s job away … based on their actual conduct, their
actual behavior and actual proof and evidence, not just some loose label that
could be applied overbroadly in a way that is unfair and unjust.

However, looking back into the world’s
history while communist governments have had some faults, capitalist ones are
worse. There were hundreds of millions of deaths caused by capitalism, the mass
poverty of the third world, world hunger caused
by western imperialism, and the hundreds of wars
over capitalist conflicts, some
conflicts only about being able to claim hegemony over
the local resources and labor. There were always democratic and popular
support for a variety of Marxist-oriented governments (or at least
"anti-anti-Communist" governments) that existed during the Cold War
era, such as Allende's Chile. And anti-communists
condemn support for oppressive regimes for the sole purpose of eliminating communist
influence, and claim that this sort of action is worse than any differences
that communist nations may have had with capitalist countries.

One thing must be admitted that there is still
anti-communist sentiment in the U.S., which proudly claims to respect and strengthen
democracy. In many states of America, the communist parties are not allowed to
run for elections or face with many unfair treatments in election campaigns.
This AB-22 law is just a small step to give the American communists fair treatments
and democracy. There’s still more to do./.

Part of having a functioning democracy and a fair and equitable society is to make sure you’re actually basing your decisions to take someone’s job away … based on their actual conduct, their actual behavior and actual proof and evidence, not just some loose label that could be applied overbroadly in a way that is unfair and unjust.

This bill would delete references to the Communist Party in this requirement. The bill would also repeal related findings and declarations of the Legislature regarding communism and the Communist Party.